Vampire Level Draining - No Save, Right?

[Trine]

It was a ruling by the Sage that no matter how many slam/unarmed attacks a level-draining creature has, it can only use one attack to drain each round. A monk vampire could still use their iterative attacks, but they'd only be able to inflict their negative levels once in any one round. That's still 2 negative levels per round though, which makes it progressively more difficult to fight.

I'll try to find where this ruling was, I can't remember off-hand where it was made, or if it was ever made "official."

 

[Caliban]

As far as I'm concerned, a slam is an unarmed attack. Thus, a vampire monk in my game would use his monk unarmed BAB, damage, and Flurry of Blows...and each successful strike adds two negative levels to the unhappy recipient. Someone correct me if I've been doing this wrong.

Unless your goal is to slaughter players without any recourse on their part, yes you have been doing it wrong. A 6th level vampire monk using Flurry of Blows would potentially be able to kill a 6th level character outright in one round using your method.

From page 54 of the D&D FAQ:

Would all of the unarmed strikes by a vampiric monk be
considered slam attacks and inflict negative levels? Would
the vampire monk use its slam damage rating or its monk
unarmed damage rating?

Creatures with level-draining ability drain levels only once
per action, so if they get multiple attacks, only the first hit in a
series of hits inflicts a negative level. (Note that a hasted
creature inflicts a negative level with a hit during its regular
action and another negative level with a hit during its extra
partial action.)
As pointed out before, creatures with monk levels can
combine their natural weapons and their monk unarmed attacks
in any way they see fit. For example, the monk could use either
its slam damage rating or its monk unarmed damage rating, as
it chooses. In either case, it can drain energy as noted earlier. If
the vampire wishes to use its monk unarmed attack rate, it must
use only its monk attack bonus, however.

 

[kreynolds]

It was a ruling by the Sage that no matter how many slam/unarmed attacks a level-draining creature has, it can only use one attack to drain each round. A monk vampire could still use their iterative attacks, but they'd only be able to inflict their negative levels once in any one round. That's still 2 negative levels per round though, which makes it progressively more difficult to fight.

Yup. Here's a little nod to Jeremy too.

 

[ForceUser]

Yipes! OMG. My guys fought a vampire monk twice, and tore him up both times, finally staking him the second time. He was lower level than the party at the time so didn't have much of an opportunity to do anything before being defeated each time. Thank god! I really misinterpreted vampire slam.

 

[Mr.Binx]

Heh... I happened across this thread shortly after appending some info to another thread about an energy draining hit squad. Yeah, energy drain can be pretty mean, even if you remove the negative level the immediate effects are pretty devastating.